Britian in danger of tax exodus

Following the news that Wolesely, the manufacturing giant, is to leave the UK due to tax purposes, experts believe that an exodus could be imminent.

In the last year a number of tax related non-residents left the country for good, which shows that it’s not just big companies who are perturbed by England’s current tax system.

Accountant Richard Mannon said: “The statistics indicate that the number of UK taxpayers registering as non-resident fell from 148,000 in 2007/8 to 130,000 in 2008/9. But another way of looking at the same figures is to say that a total of 278,000 taxpayers left the UK in those two years, which seems a staggeringly high number.”

This suggests that high net worth individuals simply won’t stand for high taxes, and that the Government could potentially be shooting itself in the foot by enforcing such increased rates like the 50 percent top bracket band.

Along with the 50 percent bracket the capital gains increase is also thought to be a factor, along with the persecution of non-doms, Mannion added: “And 2008/9, was the year that the horrendous new tax rules for non-doms were introduced and as a direct result we saw a small number of wealthy people taking steps to relocate to locations that were considered to be more accommodating, for example Switzerland and Monaco.”